G20 Summit: Bharat Mandapam designed as recreation zone, says architect Sanjay Singh

Bharat Mandapam, the magnificent international exhibition cum convention center (IECC) to host G20 Summit, will open its doors to the public after the event.

The project, which is sprawled across a 123-acre site, includes 12 exposition rooms, a cutting-edge convention centre with a multipurpose hall that can hold 7,000 people, and a beautiful open plaza next to a 1.5-acre artificial lake.

Sanjay Singh, Director, Arcop Associates and the architect of the Bharat Mandapam project, said that an eight-acre public plaza, complete with musical fountains and a food court in front of the convention centre will be open for the people as a ticketed recreation zone, which was lacking in the earlier Pragati Maidan complex.

The Bharat Mandapam project was designed by Arcop in association with Aedas, Singapore.

The convention center’s multiple conference halls can accommodate 13,500 people at once, and each hall is equipped to broadcast events happening in one area of the facility simultaneously.

In the past, the 123-acre Pragati Maidan complex had a number of show buildings, and visitors would stroll around the pathways in both the rain and the sun, Singh said.

“We sought to change that to a pleasurable experience,” he said, “We have connected the halls together and they have this unifying component a 40-feet wide glass canopy where people could walk comfortably, with tea and coffee shops next to it.”

Singh said that underpasses connecting the 40-acre basement parking lot can accommodate more than 5,000 cars and 60 buses, making the trip to the IECC as comfortable as possible.

“We created a 1,00,000 sq ft entrance plaza in the basement which is air conditioned. This is where all the ticketing and security checks will happen and when you come to the ground level, you have a choice to go into the ticketed zone which is the exhibition area or the non-ticketed zone which is the convention centre,” he said.

Earlier, Pragati Maidan had about four lakh square feet of exhibition space of which nearly two lakh square feet was demolished to make way for the new structures, he informed. However, the new exhibition halls have added around 16 lakh square feet of exhibition space, which is eight times the area that was demolished.

Exhibition halls 7 to 12 were not demolished.

“We have tried to integrate this with the social fabric of the city so that people can enjoy public spaces in a secure manner,” Singh said.

He said two to three presentations about the project were held in the prime minister Narendra Modi’s office and a lot of inputs were shared by various government agencies and departments.

“The government was very conscious that this was a showcase project. It was a project that was aligned with the G20 requirements. It should be the best, because we are hosting world leaders,” Singh said.

The convention centre will be available for public programmes after September, a senior official said.